Multinetwork Management

As they head toward 3G, carriers must integrate their network-management platforms.

Today's network-management platforms provide a single view of the voice network. But this single view becomes the exception rather than the norm as carriers add data capabilities in the form of 2.5G and 3G networks. Each wireless technology has a different evolutionary path toward 3G. Depending on their chosen path, carriers could be forced to manage two, three or even four networks at the same time.

For instance, some TDMA carriers have announced decisions to deploy GSM in their markets, then GPRS and EDGE on top of that. As a result, they have to manage four networks simultaneously — some old, some new, some established and some not. GSM and CDMA carriers also will contend with managing multiple platforms as their networks evolve.

Outside of the network-management system, carriers face an onslaught of other network issues that they must address as they move toward 3G. Much of a carrier's ability to address these issues will be affected by its network vendors, which will help ease the transition to 3G, as well as provide the most integrated solutions possible.

Managing Multiple Networks

Wireless networks are becoming increasingly complex as carriers move into the wireless Internet. More network elements and new business dynamics mean more challenges. According to Claire Shingler, Nortel Networks (www.nortelnetworks.com) manager of GPRS wireless Internet solutions, the ideal management solution for a 3G world must be able to extend to new technologies, devices and functionality, as well as be integrated into legacy and third-party systems. The system also needs to be reliable, carrier grade and scaleable to grow with the introduction of new services. The management system should be able to evolve so that carriers can manage all key technologies — 2G, 2.5G and 3G — across both the core and the packet domain.

“Network-management systems need to shift from simply being oriented toward managing the network infrastructure to looking end-to-end throughout the network, across services and customers,” she said. “Next-generation network management will need to provide an integrated view of the network, and it will need to provide an increasingly intelligent and simple interface for network operators.”

John Puma, Motorola (www.motorola.com) director of business development for next-generation networks, agreed that an integrated view across both circuit and packet networks is ideal. European carriers that have implemented 2.5G systems currently have two separate network-management interfaces. But going forward, the industry needs to move to traditional hierarchical integrated management systems.

“Carriers will want one operational support system (OSS); they will not want two,” he said. “But in the early days of any technology roll-out, they will have more than one. It will be one of the competitive issues that vendors who supply solutions to the network will have to deal with.”

Having more than one management system is tough on network managers, he added. It's hard enough to learn a new management system, but having to learn and keep track of multiple systems can be confusing.

“If a carrier has a 2G system in the ground, the technical and OSS staffs are familiar with that technology and vendor,” he said. “Now the carrier puts in another network that can handle 3G services, and the big question is how different will that technology be? Will the talent base exist to help manage those systems and debug those systems?”

Mike Iandolo, Lucent vice president of product marketing (www.lucent.com), agreed that at first, management systems would be separate.

“It will take a couple of years before you have that fully integrated, (which) is part of the challenge that carriers face,” he said. “We will have the ability to completely manage the data services that will be rolled out even initially, and, ultimately, you will have a more seamless network management for the whole network.”

Although vendors realize the importance of integrated network management, not all of them have a working solution that provides a single view of a 2.5G or 3G network.

Puma said Motorola has put forth a sizeable effort to create a single OSS that interfaces with all of the 3G network elements and also will be backwards-compatible to 2G systems.

Lucent eventually expects to offer one integrated network-management system, but it will take some time for vendors and carriers to get to that point, Iandolo noted. He emphasized that when it comes to network management, there is no single prescription that fits all carriers. Each carrier will create a system based on its own architecture. Carriers that have been around for awhile have the in-house capabilities to act as their own systems integrators. They design the capabilities they need, buy portions from different vendors, then put them all together. Others will rely on their infrastructure vendors' network-management products. Still others will turn to third-party management vendors.

“Carrier to carrier, it is vastly different,” Iandolo said. “Wherever we can with our total offer, we will have an integrated network-management capability, and sometimes our customers will elect to personalize, customize or add things to it.”

Nortel Networks already has created a network-management tool for GSM 3G evolution. Preside Serviceware is a pre-integrated standards-based software solution spanning GSM, GPRS and UMTS technologies.

“The ability to manage networks across technologies in the wireless Internet is vital in order to ensure carriers reduce capital and operational expenditures, as well as maintain long-term carrier profitability,” Shingler said. “Preside Serviceware bridges that critical gap between customer care, services and network management, bringing real value to the end user in terms of network performance and time-to-service, thereby reducing churn in the network.”

More Network Issues

Aside from trying to manage multiple network platforms as they migrate toward 3G, carriers face other network issues, as well. Motorola's Puma pointed out that figuring out how to size next-generation wireless networks also is at the forefront of carriers' minds.

“Sizing for voice calls was relatively understood, but now with 3G, carriers are sizing for multimedia sessions,” he explained. “There is no generally accepted call model yet for a multimedia session, whereas there are several call models that are accepted for voice calls.”

Carriers must start postulating what those multimedia call models will be. For instance, multimedia presents different types of sessions, from a conversational voice session to real-time video, e-mail and text messaging.

“Standards have defined about six levels of QoS in the industry, so when you think about spreading your traffic across those different levels of QoS characteristics, then you have to size your network based on the traffic,” Puma said.

Motorola, which has customers rolling out data services in the form of IS-95B in Japan, has built models and simulations based on its experience with data and multimedia sessions to help carriers size their 3G networks.

Ericsson (www.ericsson.com) has created Tools for Radio Access Management, a PC-based software package that supports operators in planning and testing WCDMA networks. The WCDMA planner helps carriers calculate the number of base stations needed for the WCDMA network to cover a certain area, while the transporter component provides support when dimensioning the network. An optimizer provides performance monitoring, and the TEMS investigation component assists in drive testing during tuning, optimization and troubleshooting.

Operators also will face new challenges and complexities across both the core and the access domains within the network, Shingler said. Core and access domains will require elements such as QoS assurance and security. Nortel Networks is working to deliver a QoS solution that allows carriers to manage QoS, guarantee end users' satisfaction and secure higher margins through services differentiation. The solution also will strengthen customer relationships by enabling carriers to implement pro-active management of service-level agreements.

Shingler added that a solution based on open standards also is important to introduce new network elements simply and quickly. Carriers should look for solutions that create a flexible environment for developing and introducing future services. Open standards also enable customization, personalization and a faster time to market.

Nilsson said that Ericsson also strongly believes in open standards to aid in personalization, positioning services and m-commerce. Carriers need nodes and open-application programming interfaces that third-party developers also can access to enable positioning and m-commerce services.

Puma pointed out that another network issue carriers face is whether to start with a switch-centric or client-server IP approach. This decision is complicated by the fact that switch-centric vendors are trying to preserve market share by slow-rolling a paradigm shift to client servers, while vendors whose businesses are not dominated by switches are trying to get carriers to move to IP quickly.

“The issue that carriers deal with is when will this IP-centric technology really be ready to deploy? Most operators believe they want to get to IP, and they want to understand it from a budget, technology and operational perspective,” Puma said. “There will be a time frame where these networks will be hybrid, but people who want to move everything to an IP-oriented packet-based network don't want to support two networks going forward.”

The ability to provide a single network view is now a competitive advantage for network vendors. Therefore, as carriers choose a 3G-network-infrastructure manufacturer, they should look beyond the vendor's ability to provide 3G radios and handsets. Vendors also must have a comprehensive plan for integrating 2G, 2.5G and 3G network-management systems.

If an integrated platform is not on your vendor's drawing board, perhaps an in-house development team or a third-party management solution will be a better option.

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Betsy Harter (betsyharter@aol.com) is a freelance writer based in Athens, GA.

Points to Ponder

Carriers should consider the following questions as they choose a system to manage 3G networks, according to John Puma, Motorola (www.motorola.com) director of business development for next-generation networks.

• How many systems will the technicians have to learn?
• How much will the new system have in common with old systems?
• How easy will it be for technicians to understand what is happening in a system and issue corrective measures?
• How much education is required to run these systems?
• Is the system self-healing?
• Can artificial intelligence be deployed to try to automatically and dynamically fix problems that occur?

3G Networks Affect Billing

Although billing often is considered separate from network-management platforms, as carriers introduce new packet-based elements into the network, and the volumes of data coming from these elements increase, billing inevitably becomes more complex. Therefore, mediation requires flexibility and customization so carriers can implement billing models based on QoS, volume, time, events and content, said Claire Shingler, Nortel Networks (www.nortelnetworks.com) manager, GPRS wireless Internet solutions.

“The interworking between the mediation and the billing systems will enable the end-to-end implementation of pricing strategies, as well as integration and strategic alliances between mediation vendors and customer-care systems,” she added.

Nortel Networks Service Accounting from the Preside portfolio is a mediation solution that brings intelligence to the mediation layer and enables operators to introduce service offerings and new billing models. Carriers can bill on time, volume, flat-rate, events and content.

John Puma, Motorola (www.motorola.com) director of business development for next-generation networks, agreed that billing systems must be able to respond to the changing conditions that occur in a dynamic mobile system, most notably QoS. Customers that want a higher grade of QoS each time they connect should be billed at a higher rate than customers who are content with dial-up speeds. If, however, the service is not available or the carrier needs to reduce bandwidth, billing needs to adjust dynamically.